Dr. Parinita Bhattacharjee is a founding member of India Health Action Trust (IHAT).
She has over two decades of experience in program designing and management with an expertise in the field of sexual and reproductive health and HIV prevention and care. An advocate for gender equity and community participation, she has been working on integrating the same within public health programs. Parinita has been a champion of the program science approach and has consistently made efforts to ensure that research becomes meaningful for programs and policies.
Parinita has been involved in providing technical support for HIV prevention in several Asian and African counties like Bhutan, Sri Lanka, Ethiopia, Malawi, Cote d’ivoire, to name a few. She leads the technical support units to the Government of Kenya to scale up HIV prevention programs. She is also involved in program science research for innovations like HIV self-testing. In the past, Parinita has served as a member of NACO’s Technical Working Group to scale the Link Worker Scheme, has led the gender and violence working group for the STRIVE consortium led by London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. She has authored several journal articles, strategy papers, reports and project-related training manuals on scaling up HIV prevention programs, interventions with key populations, gender based violence, community mobilisation, to mention a few.
She supports IHAT by providing strategic direction and guidance related to community centric program design and implementation.
Parinita has a Master’s Degree in Medical and Psychiatric Social Work from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai, India, and a PhD from Erasmus University, Netherlands
Ms. Paro Chaujar has over 30 years of experience as a policy advisor and programme specialist for gender equality, gender-based violence (GBV), women’s empowerment, children’s rights, and transformative approaches. She has extensive experience providing technical assistance on policy and programmes through the lens of lived experience; a comprehensive background in grassroots work; and has played a variety of strategic roles in sub-national, national, and international initiatives.
She specialises in drafting normative documents (national policies and plans), designing programme strategies, research and evaluations and has done so with/for organisations such as UN Women (current), UNFPA, UNICEF, World Bank, Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, BMZ/GIZ, DFID, ActionAid International, ChildFund Australia, Traidcraft UK, International Rescue Committee, and terre des hommes (Germany), among others.
Paro speaks six languages and has worked in 18 countries across Asia, Africa, and Eastern Europe. She has authored or co-authored over 35 publications, which include research papers, evaluations, and policy and strategy documents. The most recent is a framework on addressing discriminatory social norms, and a toolkit on GBV programming.
Paro holds a Master’s Degree in Social Work from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai.
Dr. Prakash Kudur has over three decades of technical and managerial experience in public as well as private health sector domains, ranging from work with International Health organisations to NGOs, hospitals, industrial hospitals, pharmaceutical/Medical-Surgical companies and medical colleges. He has provided leadership for public health programs in the areas of Polio, MCH/Immunisation, HIV and AIDS, Corona Virus-MERS and Tuberculosis (TB). He has managed a wide range of portfolios during his career.
Prakash served as Director of Medical Services and TB Programs at Karnataka Health Promotion Trust. He has also held leadership positions at Becton Dickinson India Ltd. and at HMT Hospital. He was the Resident Surgeon at Kidwai Memorial Institute of Oncology at Bangalore and served as a Senior Specialist in Public Health for the Ministry of Health, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. He was also associated with WHO and UNICEF, where he worked on large scale disease surveillance and eradication programs for Polio and Measles. He has contributed as an advisor for various government departments on promotion of Infection Control and Patient Safety. Prakash has been a part of several national and international conferences and was a speaker at the IAS Conference Mexico in 2008 and ISSTDR Conference at London in 2009. The World Health Organization has recognised him as an expert advisor on HIV-TB. He has authored various publications related to Sexually Transmitted Infections, Key Populations and HIV treatment and care, to name a few.
He provides strategic support to IHAT in the areas of Health Systems Strengthening, HIV and TB.
Prakash has a degree of MD in Community Medicine from the University of Mysore; he completed his MBA in Health Care Services Management from Sikkim-Manipal University, India.
Dr. Shireen Jejeebhoy is a demographer and social scientist, currently the founder and director of the Aksha Centre for Equity and Wellbeing, Mumbai. She served as a Visiting Distinguished Faculty at the International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS), Mumbai, during 2023-2025, and as President of the International Union for the Scientific Study of Population, Paris, during 2022-2025. Previously, she served as a Senior Associate at the Population Council, India, and as a Scientist in the Reproductive Health and Research Department at the WHO, Geneva.
Her research and publications have focused on adolescent and youth health and development (she led India’s first sub-national survey of youth), empowerment of women and girls, gender-based violence and sexual and reproductive health and rights including abortion, child, early and forced marriage, menstrual health management, gender norms and their adverse effects on women’s sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR), and assessing the SRHR situation in the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) region.
She is or has been on the boards of several institutions, including Plan India, Population Foundation of India, IIPS, Tata Institute of Social Sciences and ARROW’s Programme Advisory Committee.
Shireen holds a Doctorate (Ph.D.) in Demography from the University of Pennsylvania.
Dr. Deep Thacker serves as the Project Director of the Uttar Pradesh Technical Support Unit (UP TSU). UP TSU is one of IHAT’s flagship programmes, working in close partnership with the Government of Uttar Pradesh to strengthen health systems and support the planning, implementation and evaluation of Maternal, Newborn, Child Health (MNCH), Family Planning, Nutrition and Routine Immunization programmes. Deep provides strategic and technical leadership to the multidisciplinary teams at UP TSU, supporting the government in improving health outcomes across the state, and contributes to IHAT’s mission to address health inequities and advance progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals.
Prior to assuming this role, Deep served as the Senior Deputy Director at IHAT, where he led the Routine Immunization portfolio under the MNCH programme. He worked closely with the Department of Health and Family Welfare and the National Health Mission, Uttar Pradesh to support the design, implementation and monitoring of immunization interventions. His work has focused on strengthening routine immunization systems through new vaccine introduction, infectious disease surveillance, private sector engagement, and the use of technology and data-driven approaches to improve programme performance.
Before joining IHAT, Deep was associated with Global Health Strategies, where he provided technical support across Tuberculosis, Neglected Tropical Diseases and RMNCH+A programmes while fostering partnerships with government agencies, elected representatives, partner organisations, and professional medical bodies. He led state teams in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar to support the introduction of the Rotavirus vaccine and contributed to large-scale capacity-building initiatives with the Indian Academy of Pediatrics, including the Neonatal Resuscitation Program, Helping Babies Survive and IAP Mission Uday.
Deep has authored and co-authored several peer-reviewed publications on immunization, polio eradication, vaccine introduction and policy, newborn survival, and health systems strengthening. He has also presented his research at leading national and international scientific forums, including conferences hosted by the International Pediatric Association, The Union, GAVI, and other global public health platforms. In addition, he has contributed chapters to several authoritative textbooks and clinical manuals on paediatrics and immunization, including the IAP Textbook of Pediatrics, Immunization in Clinical Practice, and the IAP Guidebook on Immunization.
He holds a Master of Public Health from Harvard University and an MBBS from Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences, Karnataka.
Dr. Dhanunjaya Rao Chintada leads the Comprehensive Primary Health Care and Urban Health initiatives at IHAT, Uttar Pradesh Technical Support Unit (UP TSU). He provides technical expertise to the Department of Health and Family Welfare and the National Health Mission, Uttar Pradesh, in designing and implementing comprehensive primary health care, urban health, and community outreach interventions. His work advances IHAT’s vision of strengthening equitable public health systems, improving maternal and newborn health outcomes across the state, and supporting the global goal of universal health coverage.
A social scientist with more than 25 years of experience, Dhanunjaya brings deep expertise in programme pathways design, implementation, community mobilisation, and advocacy. His focus areas span HIV/AIDS prevention and care among key populations and orphans and vulnerable children, maternal, newborn and child health, primary health care and community institution building, translating evidence into scalable programs that strengthen frontline service delivery and empower communities.
Prior to IHAT, Dhanunjaya worked with leading organizations across India, including the Government of Andhra Pradesh, CARE, and the Karnataka Health Promotion Trust. He led the Rajasthan South-to-North Technical Support Unit and the University of Manitoba. He is a recipient of the Field Leader Fellowship in Public Health (CDC/USAID and PHMI) and a fellowship in International Infectious Diseases and Global Health from the University of Manitoba, Canada.
He has authored several publications on scaling up HIV prevention and holds a Master’s in Social Work (Andhra University) and a PhD in Social Work (Jaipur National University).
Govinda Raju leads the financial functions for all projects being implemented by IHAT and works in close coordination with the respective project finance heads, Board of Trustees and the donors. His major responsibilities include program budgeting, fund management, overseeing of accounting activities across the projects, coordinating audits, ensuring statutory compliances and donor compliances including financial reporting to donors.
His areas of expertise include financial planning, budget management, fund management, accounting, developing financial policies and processes, internal controls, statutory compliances, financial reporting, coordinating and addressing internal & external audits and capacity building of finance team and partners. He is well versed with various accounting and HR softwares.
Raju has over 25 years experience in the field of finance and accounts with various corporates and International non government organisations. His last assignment was with a Singapore based group serving rural communities in Uttar Pradesh with renewable energy as Director and Head of Finance, managing the finance and compliances of the group companies in India and Singapore. During his 16 years’ career in the development sector, he has contributed to development of financial policies and procedures, building finance teams, effectively managing the budgets, ensured timely statutory compliances and grants. He is a member of the Institute of Cost and Works Accountants of India (ICWA) and holds a degree in Commerce from the Berhampur University.
Dr. Sanjiv Kumar leads the Anaemia and Facility Care portfolio for the Uttar Pradesh Technical Support Unit (UP TSU). In this role, Sanjiv provides technical expertise and support to the Department of Health and Family Welfare and the National Health mission, Government of Uttar Pradesh (GoUP). Sanjiv is leading a large team and helps GoUP to plan, implement and evaluate reproductive, maternal, newborn health initiatives of the state.
With over 21 years of experience in health and nutrition, Sanjiv’s areas of expertise include Maternal, Newborn and Child Health programme with focus on designing and implementing facility and community based intervention on newborn care, MNH intervention at intrapartum and immediate postpartum period and Routine Immunization strengthening. He successfully led the Nurse mentoring programme and helped the government to scale up the intervention. He has also been providing support to institutionalise in-service training (SBA, Daksh, Dakshata, etc.) of nursing cadre and technical support in ensuring quality assurance services in public health facilities of Uttar Pradesh. He also leads Maternal anemia initiative with focus on screening, referral, track and treat with special emphasis on scale up of IV Iron FCM across the state.
Prior to joining IHAT, Sanjiv worked with Save the Children as a Newborn and Child Health specialist and provided technical support in implementation of facility and community based newborn care in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. He also worked as the Divisional Health and Nutrition Technical Consultant at UNICEF and provided technical assistance to GoUP in the field of child health including immunization, maternal health, newborn health, nutrition and sanitation. He has also contributed immensely to the public health and development sector during his association with prominent organisations like USAID – Maternal and Child Health Integrated Program, ICMR, and the International Federation of Anti-Leprosy Associations.
Sanjiv has received his MBBS degree from Mysore Medical College, Mysore and completed his MD (Community Medicine) from King George’s Medical University, Lucknow.
Dr. Surbhi Seth, Director – Facilities and Health Systems Strengthening, provides leadership to strengthen health facilities and systems by improving service quality, advancing RMNCH outcomes, scaling innovations, and supporting equitable, evidence‑based healthcare across settings. With her clinical background and expertise in quality improvement, she offers technical collaboration and support for ongoing programmes, and works closely with Senior Management, cross-functional teams, and the government.
Bringing 15 years of public health experience, Dr. Seth’s work emphasises data driven health equity, building institutional capacity, and program science. She provides strategic direction for integrated work planning, oversees program planning and resources, and works closely with teams to review progress, and guides adaptive learnings through regular engagement and capacity building. Dr Seth collaborates with senior management, government, and sector partners to advance strategic priorities and represent the organisation’s mission at external platforms. Her role also includes advancement of organisational policies through strategic inputs and continuous improvement aligned with institutional values.
Prior to joining IHAT, Dr. Surbhi was Associate Director at Deloitte India, leading public health business development. She served as Technical Advisor at JSI India on USAID‑funded programs on MNCH & Immunization and has contributed to several national RMNCHA guidelines during her tenure at the MoHFW. In earlier years Dr. Seth worked on disease surveillance and vaccination systems strengthening with WHO’s National Polio Surveillance Project and served as Epidemiologist at the NCDC, India. An alumna of TISS, she received the University Silver Medal and is a lifetime member of the John Snow Society, LSHTM (UK).
Vaibhao Ambhore leads Community Health and Outreach at IHAT, focusing on strengthening community systems to improve access, utilisation, and the quality of health services, particularly in underserved and tribal geographies. In this role, he provides strategic direction and technical support for the design and scale-up of community-based interventions in maternal, newborn, and child health (MNCH) and Comprehensive Primary Health Care (CPHC). His work aims to bridge the gap between communities and public health systems, contributing to IHAT’s mission of advancing equitable health outcomes and supporting broader national and global health priorities.
With 16 years of experience in public health, his expertise lies in health systems strengthening, community engagement, programme design, and large-scale implementation. He has led multi-state initiatives across MNCH, family planning, supply chain strengthening, working closely with government systems, donors, and partners.
Prior to joining IHAT, Vaibhao held multiple leadership roles, including Chief of Party of the USAID MNCH project, leading programs across multiple states and managing diverse consortia. He has also worked with the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India, consulting firms such as Wipro Consulting, and research organisations. Vaibhao holds a Master’s in Health Administration from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Mumbai. He has authored and contributed to several publications in public health and has been part of national and international forums on MNCH and health systems.
Dr. Vandana Singh is part of the Strategy team to provide technical assistance and oversight to broader RMNCHN programs across community, facility and health systems platforms. Specifically, she provides strategic technical assistance on maternal health interventions in UPTSU. Her key areas of expertise are strengthening quality of service delivery by health facilities by setting up quality improvement processes, ensuring skill building of labor room service providers including complication detection and management along with respectful maternity care, developing mentoring modules for the nurse mentors and providing hands on mentoring and training on difficult to learn skills.
Vandana has been instrumental in and contributed to the development of the Mini Skill lab manual for use for Nurse Mentors, NBSU case sheet and NBSU register currently in use in the state of UP. She supervised and assisted the State NHM in selection of the 1st batch of Midwifery Educators in 2019. She was the nodal from UPTSU to facilitate all state level trainings of doctors, nurses and paramedics on COVID 19 in collaboration with DGMH during the pandemic. She has supported the GoUP in the LaQshya initiative since 2021 and has led the scale up of SBA training of labor room service providers across UP. More recently, she has led the development of the induction training module for permanent staff nurses under the leadership of DG training.
With a passion for public health, Vandana has more than 15 years of experience of working in the rural districts of UP in various capacities including Leprosy Elimination program and National Polio Surveillance Project (NPSP), WHO as Surveillance Medical Officer in UP and SRTL Delhi. In her current capacity, she is State Master Trainer for SBA, Daksh, MDSR, NBSU and NSSK. She is the State trainer for skill orientation in the Foundation batches of doctors conducted by SIHFW, UP. She is the Nodal officer from UP TSU for the Midwifery initiative in UP, member of National Technical Resource Group for LaQshya Sustainability, member of the ANC PNC Research Collaborative (ARC) by BMGF, contributor to the National ANC and Humanitarian Response Plan guidelines and certified Co-creator and master trainer of the Postpartum Hemorrhage Emergency Care using Bundle Approach Program developed by Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School and MGIMS Sewagram.
She is the recipient of MS Signature Award for Phenomenal leadership in Emergency Obstetric Care 2020 and UP State award for 3rd highest ANC checks as volunteer under PMSMA program in 2021.
Vandana received her MBBS degree from Kasturba Medical College, Mangalore (Manipal Academy of Higher Education, MAHE University) and DNB from Jawaharlal Nehru Hospital and Research Centre (JLNHRC), Chhattisgarh.
Gurumurthy leads the Administration function of IHAT. He provide strategic direction of administrative functions aligned with the goals and ensures efficient operations and statutory compliances of the administrative function, procurement, logistics, and asset management portfolios. As a senior member of the operations team, he plays a pivotal role in shaping administrative policies and procedures, particularly in the effective utilization of assets and human resources across IHAT’s operations. His proficiency in executing charitable plans has assisted IHAT in optimizing the utilization of funds more effectively.
Gurumurthy offers capacity-building, guidance, and hands-on support to project administration teams across the organization. He ensures adherence to organizational policies, systems, procedures, guidelines, and branding standards in all activities conducted within branch offices, project offices, and divisional offices.
With over 20 years of administration and procurement expertise in the development sector, Gurumurthy has served in various capacities, and strategized and provided directions to the administration teams of the project he worked on.
Shweta Bankar is the Senior Deputy Director – Gender at Uttar Pradesh Technical Support Unit (UP TSU). She provides strategic leadership on designing, planning and integrating gender equality across UP TSU programs. She plays a key role in establishing mechanisms to integrate gender equality in the processes, programs and policies with the support of empirical evidence.
Shweta brings in the scope for gender analysis to advocate for systemic change to mainstream gender in public policy by sensitizing stakeholders officials around gender related issues. Gender mainstreaming converges with the developmental goals of the country and can accelerate the progress towards quality and respectful health care and sustainability.
Shweta is a development sector professional with an experience of more than 14 years in planning, designing, managing, and monitoring of large programmes and action research, She has been instrumental in rolling out large scale programs centering gender norms and gender analysis integrated with qualitative research mainly Participatory Learning and Action to voice the unheard and build accountability. She had contributed significantly to the areas of men engagement in gender norms shifting interventions, sexual and reproductive health of adolescents, impact of community-based intervention on shifting norms around early, child and forced marriage, and empowerment efforts in reducing vulnerabilities among the marginalized population, across various states in India.
Before joining IHAT, Shweta has served as a Senior Research Fellow at Centre for Social and Behaviour Change, Ashoka University. She has also worked on gender norms around adolescent girls and health service uptake at Dasra, Mumbai. Her work with the International Centre for Research on Women as the Senior Technical Specialist focused on gender norm shifting interventions in the marginalized communities across various states in India. Shweta has more than 20 peer reviewed publications in international journals, books, reports to her credit. She has also participated and presented her research work in a number of international and national conferences and scientific workshops. She earned her Master’s degree in Clinical Psychology from Shreemati Nathibai Damodar Thackersey Women’s University, Pune Campus, India.
Bharat Karunakar Shetty is the Deputy Director for the TB programme. He provides technical and strategic support to the multidisciplinary team for the TB elimination program in the state working closely with State TB Cell, Government of Uttar Pradesh. The role also envisages providing insights into the healthcare projects with the state government, public-private partnerships, large scale transformation engagements.
Bharat’s areas of expertise include management of large scale public health programs in HIV, TB, Social Protection of HIV/AIDS Orphan and Children and more recently integrating Sustainable Energy Solutions into the public health facilities focusing Maternal and Child Health, Immunization and NCD value chain. He played a key role in designing and implementing these community level interventions.
Bharat served as a Team Leader for the Health and Energy Nexus Intervention in SELCO Foundation and facilitated the scale up of these interventions in 200 public health facilities in Meghalaya, Manipur, Odisha, Karnataka, Nagaland and Assam. Prior to this, he was associated with Karnataka Health Promotion Trust in various capacities, handling TB and HIV projects.
Bharat has done his Post Graduation in Health Sciences with Public Health Specialization from University of Pune. He also has 12 publications in National and International Journals as co-authors on various public health issues. He has also successfully completed two-year International Infectious Disease and Global Health Training Program (IID&GHTP) from the University of Manitoba, Canada.
Dr. Manoj Kumar Singh, as the Deputy Director, is responsible for developing strategies to strengthen service delivery by activating designated FRU health facilities in district and block levels for improved quality of care around maternal and newborn health in Uttar Pradesh. He works closely with government health counterparts and provides support in the review, planning, policy development, training, supportive supervision and program implementation. He leads the field teams and provides strategic inputs into developing the M&E framework and reviews the performance of projects to ensure the use of evidence-based program planning, system strengthening and achieving goals.
Manoj has 15 years’ experience in public health program and his areas of expertise include reproductive, maternal, newborn & child health program with focus on designing and implementation of facility and community based intervention such as labor room services along with respectful maternity care, facility and home based new born care intervention. He had played a key role and contributed significantly to the development of the SNCU, NBSU, model labor room and cold chain. He provided support in training and mentoring of SNCU staff when he was in state resource center.
Manoj has previously worked with World Health Organisation, UNICEF, NLR and Medical College. Prior to joining IHAT, he worked with UNICEF as maternal and newborn specialist and provided technical support in implementation of facility based intervention of maternal and newborn health in UP. He also worked as divisional, zonal and state consultant in UNICEF from 2009 and provided technical support in the field of maternal health, newborn health, immunisation, nutrition and sanitation. Manoj has received MBBS degree from BRD Medical College Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh and MD Community Medicine from MLB Medical College Jhansi, Uttar Pradesh.
Dr Prashant Misra, as Deputy Director, leads the Maternal Anaemia grant in 5 districts of Uttar Pradesh. He is responsible for the implementation of Anaemia initiatives in coordination with the various vertices of UPTSU, along with the Directorate and NHM.
Dr Prashant is a competent project manager with over 18 years of experience managing complex healthcare projects and 4 years of clinical experience. He has substantial experience across a range of healthcare-related areas, as well as a broad understanding of the healthcare industry as a whole. As a specialist in public health, he is familiar with advising on healthcare-related project plans, outlining their scope and feasibility and assessing and optimizing available resources.
He has led public health projects in various multispectral public health organisations (HLFPPT, Pathfinder International, HCL Foundation) in North India. His areas of expertise within the professional association include HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, Family Planning, and MNH. He first worked with UP TSU, in partnership with EngenderHealth, in 2014/15. Within UP TSU, he has previously supported the FRU strengthening, the BOOST operational research grant, and the Nurse Mentoring interventions.
Coming to his academic credentials, he pursued M.D (Physician), from Dagestan State Medical Academy, Russia, along with a PGD in Hospital and Healthcare Management from Symbiosis Institute of Health Sciences, Pune, for the period 2004-2006. Additionally, he has completed a PG Diploma in Epidemiology from IIPH, New Delhi. Dr Prashant has co-authored and presented a paper at NATCON 2011 in Dehradun on “Establishing Systems on HIV-TB Care in Community Setting”.
| Sachin Kothari, is the Deputy Director of the Family Planning, Program for the Uttar Pradesh Technical Support Unit (UP TSU). He leads the Family Planning program team that is responsible for providing technical support to the Department of Medical Health and Family Welfare and National Health Mission for planning and implementation of th program in all 75 districts of Uttar Pradesh. The focus is to enhance the effective availability, accessibility & utilization of FP services in the state to achieve the goal of 75% demand satisfaction by modern methods and to reduce the unmet need of contraception among eligible couples. Sachin’s core competency includes techno-managerial assistance to the department, health system strengthening, advocacy, supply chain management, partnership management, designing tailor-made approaches & behavior change communication strategies in the area of Family Planning. He is an experienced public health professional working across RMNCH+A portfolio with more than 20 years of experience working with esteemed organizations like Gujarat Council of Primary Education-SSA, Department of Medical Health and FW, NHM-Rajasthan, CARE India, Pathfinder International, UNFPA & IPE Global Ltd. Amongst the many milestones achieved as footprints, his contributions in the development of “e-Saadhana” an application for supply chain management of family planning commodities which was later replicated by the Government of India as FPLMIS; Strategy to roll out new contraceptives in the state along with the development of “AntaraRaj” application for tracking and tracing injectable contraceptive beneficiaries and Integrated Sterilization Case Card were acknowledged and appreciated. Sachin holds Master’s degree in Business Administration from University in Aurangabad, Maharashtra. |
Thirumalai Narayanan leads the Madhya Pradesh Innovation Hub. In this role, Thirumalai leads the effort of partnering for public health innovations in Madhya Pradesh, this being first of its kind intervention within the existing Government Health System. He provides technical expertise in Reproductive, Maternal, Newborn and Adolescent (RMNCH+A) Health, HIV, Tuberculosis and Health Systems Strengthening for the Directorate of Health Services (DHS) and National Health Mission (NHM) of Government of Madhya Pradesh (GoMP). Thirumalai leads a dynamic and innovative team embedded within DHS and works in close collaboration with the senior leadership of the government.
A development professional with a specialisation in hospital & health management, Thirumalai’s core competencies include intervention design, innovative capacity building techniques and monitoring & evaluation. With an expertise in the areas of RMNCH+A and Sexual & Reproductive Health, Thirumalai has implemented sector-specific interventions with a human centric approach in addressing the public health challenges across Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Nagaland and Gujarat.
Before joining the innovation hub in Madhya Pradesh, Thirumalai was associated with IHAT’s Uttar Pradesh Technical Support Unit (UP TSU), where he led two rounds of the Rolling Facility Survey across Uttar Pradesh – one of the significant concurrent monitoring systems of the UP TSU. He has also worked with CARE India, Pathfinder International and Nutrition International and contributed immensely in the health sector. He holds a Postgraduate Degree in Health & Hospital Management from the Indian Institute of Health Management Research, Jaipur and Bachelors of Physiotherapy from the Tamil Nadu Government Medical University.
Dr. Vandana Naidu serves in the capacity of Deputy Director for the Nutrition Project of Uttar Pradesh Technical Support Unit (UP TSU). She leads a dynamic team that is responsible for providing technical assistance to the government for strategic planning and implementation of programs on maternal, infant, young child nutrition, to engage and collaborate with government and development partners. She works in close coordination with the ICDS and Uttar Pradesh State Nutrition Mission and provides support to the nutrition initiatives in the state. These efforts play a critical role in contributing to the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals.
Vandana is a public health professional, with experience in strengthening systems for community and facility based, maternal, newborn, child health and nutrition (MNCHN) interventions. She is well experienced in providing technical assistance at district, state and national levels and quality improvement in identified processes related to MNCHN service delivery.
Her learnings in public health nutrition programming are drawn from experience with the Integrated Nutrition and Health Project (Care India), Vistaar project (Intrahealth International) and with Alive & Thrive (FHI 360). She has contributed to the design and development of the Quality Assurance component of the World Bank funded Uttar Pradesh Health Systems Strengthening Project and provided technical assistance for the Quality Improvement initiative of USAID/ASSIST in six Indian states. She also contributed to the development of the Draft State Health Policy of Uttar Pradesh.
Dr. Vibhor Jain, as the Deputy Director, provides technical and managerial support to the First Referral Units (FRUs) Domain of the Uttar Pradesh Technical Support Unit (UP TSU). He is responsible for developing strategies to strengthen service delivery at the FRUs to cater to maternal and newborn health outcomes of Uttar Pradesh. Vibhor works closely with government officials and provides support in planning, policy development, review, and program implementation. He leads the field teams and provides strategic inputs into developing the M&E framework and reviews the performance of projects to ensure the use of evidence-based program planning and system strengthening.
Vibhor’s areas of expertise include reproductive, maternal, newborn & child health, health systems strengthening and communicable diseases. He is an epidemiologist and passionate about field-based research. He has experience in managing large public health projects. He formulated data-driven policies to make key systemic improvements for successful program implementation for the underprivileged and unreached population in some of the most challenging geographies of the world.
Vibhor has previously worked with the World Health Organization, John Snow India Private Limited, Helping Babies Survive Program (American Academy of Pediatrics – Indian Academy of Pediatrics), and Government of India & Government of Uttar Pradesh, among others. He led a first-of-its-kind field study in India on Immunogenicity for a supplemental dose of vaccine, which was awarded the Charles C. Shepard Science Award in 2012 for demonstrating excellence in Science. Vibhor developed capacity building modules under the Polio Eradication Initiative, catering to almost 1.7 million frontline workers across India. He has authored several research publications in high-impact journals like Lancet, Journal of infectious disease, and BMC Public Health. He was an assessor representing NITI Aayog to validate key performance indicators of district hospitals across the country in 2019. Vibhor has done his MBBS from MLB Medical College and Hospitals, Jhansi, Uttar Pradesh and Postgraduate Diploma in Epidemiology from Indian Institute of Public Health, New Delhi, India.
Dr. Seema Tandon leads the Regional Resource Training Centre (RRTC) project of Uttar Pradesh Technical Support Unit (UP-TSU) for strengthening of First Referral Units (FRUs) of 25 HPDs of Uttar Pradesh in context of Emergency Obstetric and Newborn Care (EmOC) services through an innovative academic partnership with government medical colleges of Uttar Pradesh. She is a National Expert for Government of Uttar Pradesh (GoUP) for drafting guidelines in Maternal Death Surveillance Response, LaQshya, EmOC and Life Saving Anesthesia Skills (LSAS) trainings. These interventions play a critical role in improving the maternal and neonatal health indicators of the state.
A gynecologist by profession, Dr Seema Tandon has more than 25 years of experience in maternal health and family planning services. Her core areas of work include integrated clinical approach to Reproductive, Maternal, Newborn, Child and Adolescent Health (RMNCHA+) interventions and improvement of quality of care in service delivery. She has significantly contributed in developing guidelines, standards of practice, protocols, methods and indicators for FRU based interventions. A master trainer of different RMNCHA+ activities at all levels of service delivery, Dr Seema Tandon is well equipped with necessary clinical and training skills to develop capacities of different cadres of service providers at different levels of public health system.
Dr Seema Tandon has been associated with UP TSU since its inception in 2014 and has contributed immensely in the maternal health interventions. She played a significant role in conducting trainings on the Rolling Facility Survey strategy and supported the team in articulation of various means of verification to be used in the assessment of important maternal health indicators. She designed the concept and implementation strategy of RRTC network to improve management of maternal and newborn complications at FRUs in UP. Prior to working with IHAT, Dr Seema Tandon was associated with Population Services International as Senior Maternal Health Specialist. She has also served as Medical officer at Family Planning Association of India and as MCH officer in the ICMR project at King George’s Medical University, Lucknow. She has been an active member of Federation of Obstetric and Gynecological Societies of India (FOGSI) since 1985 and has publications on high risk pregnancy and a research paper on Strengthening of FRUs in All India Congress of Obstetrics and Gynecology (AICOG 2020). She has been recognised and awarded at different platforms for her incredible work in maternal and public health. She received a letter of appreciation for her contribution in family planning services from Mr. Bill Gates and has been awarded for extraordinary work for Human Race by Lords of Planet. She did her MBBS and DGO from G.S.V.M Medical College, Kanpur and senior fellowship in Obstetrics and Gynecology from Institute of OBGY Osmania University, Hyderabad.
Dr. Shajy K. Isac is the Managing Trustee of India Health Trust (IHAT).
As a development professional, Shajy provides strategic direction to global initiatives on HIV and AIDS, Family Planning, Maternal and Child Health, Nutrition and Health Systems Strengthening. He also leads efforts to forge new collaborations and partnerships and provides key technical advice to governments in various low and middle income countries.
With well-acknowledged expertise as a researcher, demographer and statistician, Shajy has been deeply involved with public health research and the monitoring and evaluation (M&E) of programmes for decades. He has led M&E frameworks for HIV prevention and care, and maternal and child health programmes in Asia, Africa and Europe. Shajy believes that it is his desire to address critical public health issues that has led him into this domain of work within the development space.
Shajy has spearheaded a number of studies of global relevance. He has authored over 100 peer reviewed papers, which have been published in global journals. He has mentored research students from India and abroad. Shajy has held several significant positions in global consortiums like the World Bank, United Nations, AIDS control programs in Asia, Africa and Eastern Europe.
He received his Doctorate of Philosophy from the International Institute of Population Sciences, Mumbai.